According to medical researchers, bladder cancer can be detected in urine odor. The concept of a cancer being found by its smell has been addressed in previous research where canines have been trained to sniff out the disease.
In this case, neither doctors nor patients – or even dogs – are expected to take a deep whiff in order to diagnose bladder cancer, as scientists have created a urine odor test for future clinical use.
Professor Chris Probert, from Liverpool University, and Professor Norman Ratcliffe, of the University of the West of England have developed a urine odor test.
The device – called the Odoreader – has a sensor capable of detecting gaseous chemicals which are emitted when cancer cells are present in heated samples, reports BBC.
To test their bladder cancer urine odor device, researchers used 98 samples of urine – 24 from men known to have bladder cancer and 74 from men with bladder-related problems but no cancer, reports the New York Daily News.
PLoS One states the urine odor test is accurate nine out of 10 times, based on encouraging early trial results. Still, additional studies – including samples provided by female patients and larger scale urinalysis – are needed before the device can be made available for general medical use.
The bladder is a hollow, muscular organ that stores urine; located in the pelvis. An estimated 380,000 cases of bladder cancer have been diagnosed globally, and the condition is highly treatable when found early.
Although the exact cause of bladder cancer – a malignancy arising in the epithelial lining of the urinary bladder – is unknown, smoking, biological aging, chronic infections of the bladder, gender, and exposure to chemicals have been causally attributed.
Symptoms of bladder cancer can include various degrees of blood in the urine and pain.
Scientists were inspired to create the urine odor test because survivability and recovery have better odds when bladder cancer is detected during an earlier onset of the condition.
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